Independence Day

I thought I might as well do a requisite Independence Day Post.  Happy Fourth of July to those in the United States.  The fourth reminds me of all the things I am grateful for.  I am grateful that I have choices to be who I want to be.  Many more women in this world do not have the opportunity to say, act, dress and be whoever they want to be.  I am grateful that I can believe and state my beliefs without fear of imprisonment or retribution.  I am grateful that I can speak up for what I believe in and that those who have opposite views of me can speak up too.  I am grateful that I can choose to go to any church I’d like or choose not to go to church at all.  I love the individuality values of America.   I am grateful that I don’t live in a homogenous culture – I have the opportunity to meet and know so many people from different worlds than I am from.  I am grateful despite the limitations and struggles in this country that there are still endless opportunities.

I’d also like to thank all the individuals who served this country.  I thank those who choose to serve and those who were made to, those who are remembered and those who are forgotten and those who made the ultimate sacrifice.  It is because of these people I am able to enjoy my freedoms.

Hope you have a wonderful Independence Day.

Choice

I've decided that my choice is to do what I love.  I believe doing what I love, living my passions will bring me contentment and happiness.  Sometimes I put obstacles and barriers of my own making into place and it gets in the way of fully living my journey.  I feel like I have to earn good times and getting what I want.  It turns out that I don't.  Sometimes life is hard and sometimes I make it harder than it needs to be.  Today I am going to choose to not put up fake barriers.  Today I am going to choose happiness.  What are you going to choose today?

Things Not To Say

I saw this article on things on to say to mothers.  Worth reading!

8 Things Never to Say To moms 

Several things I wouldn't say to anybody, not just moms.

A good rule of thumb is to be kind in your intractions.  Telling someone they really need to dye their hair (if it is not your very best friend in the world) isn't helpful.  The other day one of my bosses said that to me.  Instead of being helpful (which I know her and she was genuinely trying to be helpful), I wasted moments of my life worrying about my hair.  Just saying.

So..  Ask yourself if what you are saying is helpful or hurtful (before you say it.)  Be Kind. Be Kind. Be Kind.

Totally Random Friday Fun

Random Activity for today…

Need to procrastinate?  Want to stimulate your mind? 

I learned some new words today and used them in sentences below.

I can say without any hesitation I do not suffer from Porphyrophobia.  It is one of my favorite colors.

I have a favorite story on the internet that used the word Ubiquitous.  Now I know what it means.

I wish I was a Deipnosophist but a lot of times I just seem like I’m rambling.



Fridays and Words are almost always
good reasons to smile.



Now you have something to do and most likely you can learn something.  Go to dictionary.com or other internet place and look up the words you don’t know. 

You’re welcome.



Feelings

“All of our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling.”  Blaise Pascal

~~I hope so~~

Often it seems like people think they are too emotional.  In practice, most people I meet (myself included) are experts at avoiding feeling and intellectualizing and rationalizing absolutely everything.  I don’t like unpleasant or unhappy feelings and I imagine most other people don’t either so sometimes I just don’t feel them.  I put them in a box and I ignore them, or distract myself or tell myself that there is no reason I feel a certain way so stop.  Guess what?  This doesn’t work in the long run.  Emotions are part of our whole being.  They aren’t good or bad, they just are.  They exist.  Sitting with an uncomfortable emotion is necessary sometimes and you will survive it.  When you feel sadness, anger, fear or embarrassment – whatever- stop and just feel it.  It seems so simplistic but we don’t do it.

It goes the other way too.  Sharing love, joy. laughter and tears is ok.  It doesn’t make you less of a person because  you tear up at a meeting.  It doesn’t make you weak to show you care about someone or something.  Making a decision because it makes you happy or because you are in love is not crazy.  Often people think things to death.  Trust your emotions. Sometimes we spend so much time of our lives disavowing feelings as unimportant when they are the essence of our being.

We are feeling beings.  What will happen if you embrace this?

You are enough!

“Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” Christopher Robin to Pooh

I have this quote in my office.  More than once someone has told me they read it and remembered they were stronger than they sometimes think.  Don’t sell yourself short.   This isn’t about enduring obstacles.  This is about achieving potential.  This is about jumping in with both feet.  

This is about soaring.  You are more.

Live Your Life!

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
Henry David Thoreau


Don’t be this person.  Share your song.   Life is meant to be lived.  There is going to be no magic wand so if you are looking to not live a life of quiet desperation you have to choose it.  Sometimes it is easy to forget that living is a choice.

What do you want your life to be?  Life is laughing.  Life is living up to your potential.  Life is quiet, content evenings at home, Life is adventure. Life is curiosity.  Life is both quiet and loud joy.   Life is learning. Life has struggle but doesn’t always have to be difficult.   Life is meant to be grand.  Life is love. 

Make your life everything you want it to be.  We are destined to be amazing and wonderful.  Embrace this destiny

Totally random post…

Robert Frost’s Poem:  Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171621

I have always absolutely loved the last stanza of this poem.  I have actually thought that if I would ever get a quote tattooed on me (which I’m guessing I never will) it would be the lines “…But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”

Sometimes there are just sayings or lines in songs that touch something in us – even if no one else gets it.  The things that resonate us tells a lot about a person.  I’m not always sure what.

Grab on to those things that resonate with you.  They are who you are.

See.  Totally random.

Smile

I just thought I’d remind you not to underestimate the power of a smile.  My favorite compliment given to me is “I like your smile.”



It is inevitable that at the dialysis center at which I also work, at just the time I’m getting frustrated by being asked to fax MORE medical records or help with some other aggravating issue, a patient will stop me.  The patient will say something like “I look forward to your smile” or “I always feel better when you say ‘hi’ and smile” or “it can be so dreary here, then you come out and smile and everything brightens up for a little while.”



I know you can't help smiling when
you see this picture!



It reminds me that connecting to others is what it is about.  How hard is it to just smile at someone?  During this time a year it is easy for everyone to get so busy.  Take a moment and smile at the stranger standing with you on the corner.  Smile at cashier at the store.  Smile at your significant other or children even if they are driving you a bit crazy.  It is not magic.  It is not difficult.   It can make a world of difference to someone.  Smile.